Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Love 'em? Me too. Nothing beats a crispy sweet potato fry. The problem with so many recipes is, because of the natural sugars inside that delicious spud, the outside burns before the potato cooks through.

Soggy sweet potato fries? Not lovable. Oh sure, I'll still eat them. But they don't make me jump for joy.

You could deep fry them. It's delicious, but certainly not as healthy.

So, you can imagine my joy when I pulled out these crunchy little babies:

Crispy, but not burned on the outside. Fluffy in the middle. My work here is done.


Baked Sweet Potato Fries

(based on an Alton Brown recipe from Food & Whine)

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tbsp all purpose flour (approx)
1 tbsp canola oil
 seasonings: sea salt, curry powder, smoked paprika... the choice is really up to you.


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425º.

2. Cut the sweet potato into equally sized widths (I did about 3/8th of an inch square). If you have a mandoline, this is a great time to pull it out as it will allow you to cut the potato evenly.

3. Place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Toss with egg white, then sprinkle with flour and toss again. You can add a little more flour if the mixture looks too runny, but try to avoid that if you can. Sprinkle with seasonings and toss a third time.

4. Drizzle a parchment lined baking sheet (or two) with oil, and place potatoes on sheet(s). Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, flipping half way through. If using more than one sheet, bake at the top and lower thirds of the oven, rotating halfway through when you flip the sweet potatoes over.

Totally Awesome Sweet Potato Chips

I cannot claim responsibility for this brilliant recipe; I found it over on the blog Everyone Is Vegan via Taste T.O.'s weekly blogger round up. So, I guess you could say then, that the people over there found it.

Long story short: you can make awesome, crispy Terra Chip style chips in your oven.

I know, it seems impossible.

But, never question a girl whose favourite food is potato chips and who happens to have given them up for Lent. If there's an awesome substitute to be had, you'd better believe I'm having it. These are ah-may-zing. I've made two batches thus far and they're just... drool. My new favourite snack.

Once they're baked, I don't know how long they'll keep for, as we've never managed to keep them around for more than a few hours.

In fact, I only have pictures of the first batch, because the second one (yam with our favourite curry powder) got inhaled too quickly.

This batch was made with Korean sweet potatoes. They have a really interesting grain to them as they bake up.

Sweet Potato Chips

(from Everyone is Vegan)

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil, melted
¼-½ tsp kosher salt
(optional: mix in ¼ tsp spicy curry powder with the salt)

Directions

1. Arrange racks in oven so that you have one in the bottom 1/3rd and one in the top 1/3rd. Preheat oven to 200º. Line two large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Use a mandoline to slice your potato lengthwise into long, thin strips. You want them to be about 1/16" thick. Resist the urge to make them too thin at the start, because as they cook, they'll lose their moisture and have the potential to become too thin and more like a wafer than the crunchy potato chip that you're after.

3. Toss with coconut oil and place strips on sheets. If you can avoid overlapping, awesome. If not, don't worry about it, you can fix that later. Sprinkle with salt (and seasoning if you're going that route).

4.Bake in oven for 3-4 hours or until totally dry and crispy. Don't be afraid to let them go even longer if they are even the slightest bit chewy. Turn (and separate) slices every hour or so to get even crisping.

5. Brag to your friends about your accomplishments.